Anyone ever seen Saensak fight? Weird little fighter. Fought from this strange muai tai stance with his hands open facing his oppoent... Got a world title shot in only his third fight, and fought, and beat, some very good fighters in a very short period of time. Thomas Hearn's KILLED the poor guy in three consecutive 10-8 rounds where Saensak did absolutely nothing but smile as he was battered.
Yeah, his ascent to the top was pretty incredible, though. Rudy Barro (a respectable journeyman who had just defeated highly ranked Jimmy Haier (sp?)) was taken out in one, in Maunsaurin's pro debut. Lion Furuyama, who had just lost a split decision for a version of the 140lb title was stopped in the Thai's second fight. Saensak then won the title in his third professional outing. Even if he was an experienced mauy-thai fighter, that's pretty insane.
yeah the him vs hearns was on youtube...guy seemed to of froze to the ropes all he coudl do is smile back...hearns sadly was just looking at the clock waitng for a time to ko him
I remember when Muangsurin won one of the belts at 140 lbs. in 1975. He forced the reigning champion, Perico Fernandez of Spain, to quit in the eighth round. It was striking that Muangsurin became a champion in only his third pro fight, but he had a lengthy kickboxing career behind him. I think he may have been a world champion as a kickboxer. For about three years after beating Fernandez, Muangsurin basically cleaned out the junior welterweight division.
There's been a few muay thai boxers that fought for belts very early in their boxing carreers. The guy that beat Chiquita Gonzales beat him very early in his carreer as well. I guess muay thai prepares boxers pretty well.
Saensak can barely function now...his wife is his caregiver and he's quite lucky to have her. Saensak was a hard-headed fighter and known as "Buffalo head" by many for his ability to take a punch. Obviously he wasn't able to take Hearns' punch and now, years later, he's paying for it dearly.
Very underrated champion fighter, defended his title 8 times, one of the best from Thailand that I can remember.
If he was legally blind maybe he was squinting,trying to figure out where the punches were coming from.
I'm pretty certain that Muangsurin was washed up by the time he fought Hearns. I remember Muangsurin was beginning to struggle in his 140 lbs. title defenses, then he was kayoed by Sang Hyun Kim. After that, Muangsurin lost to Dan DeGuzman, a virtual unknown with only eight pro fights to his name. Remember also that Muangsurin was stepping up in weight to fight Hearns at 147 lbs. Overall, beating Muangsurin looks good on Hearns's record, but worn out, out-of-his weight class Muangsurin was probably not in the ring to beat Tommy that night.